Getting to the Point with Dave Creek

Tell us a bit about your latest work.

I have two novels coming out in the next few weeks/months.  One is CHANDA'S AWAKENING, and it's the first full-length work about my series character Chanda Kasmira.  She's trying to save the inhabitants of the planet Splendor.  Two pre-industrial species live on Splendor, which is under a death sentence after a nearby star went supernova.  Making things worse, two other alien races are interested in Splendor, and Chanda has to travel to both their homeworlds to try to stop an interstellar war.

The other book is THE UNMOVING STARS.  The starship Shen Kuo is attacked just as the Star Rebellion opens hostilities against Earth.  The ship survives, but is thrown so far away from Earth it will take decades to get home.  Yes, I'm very aware this is a trope used on LOST IN SPACE, STAR TREK: VOYAGER, and FARSCAPE.  But I wrote the book with that knowledge and, I believe, took it some places those earlier works didn't go.

What are the themes and subjects you tend to revisit in your work?

I especially like writing stories that take place in space or on other planets.  You might call it space opera, but especially in my short stories, there isn't a lot of violence.  Rather, my characters deal with cultural misunderstandings between humans and aliens, or they're making the first steps onto a previously unexplored world.  I'm eager to write a story visiting the Trappist-1 system, with its seven Earth-sized planets!

What writers have influenced your style and technique?

Among writers of my generation, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and Ray Bradbury were probably the biggest influences.  I believe Asimov and Heinlein have probably affected my style and technique the most.  I aspire to the soaring prose of Clarke and Bradbury.  Other writers who have been great influences on me include Poul Anderson and C.J. Cherryh for worldbuilding and Lois McMaster Bujold for characterization.

Where would you rank writing on the "Is it an art or it is a science continuum?" Why?

It's gotta be both.  If it's not art, it doesn't affect the reader emotionally.  And why else would you read fiction?  But you also have to have technique.  Without some kind of framework giving your story a form, you might never put your point across.

Any other upcoming projects you would like to plug?  

I have two short stories forthcoming:  "A Grand Gesture" in ANALOG SCIENCE FICTION and "Short on Thought, Quick on the Trigger" in PERIHELION SF.

You can also sample two earlier stories by going to my website, davecreek.com.  "Pathways" was originally published in ANALOG and is available in my collection A GLIMPSE OF SPLENDOR.  "The Human Equations," available in the collection of the same title, also first appeared in ANALOG.

My website also features links to all my books, background information on the Future History in which most of my work is set, and reviews of my stories and novels.

You can also catch up with me on Facebook.  Just look up "Dave Creek."  On Twitter, I'm @DaveCreek.